Police, firefighters fill most top spots on Quincy payroll

In base salaries, the number of Quincy firefighters earning more than $100,000 nearly doubled in 2013.

Patrick Ronan The Patriot Ledger @pronan_Ledger

Most of the city’s top earners in 2013 were police officers and firefighters, with 67 members of the police department and 48 firefighters collecting more than $100,000 in base salaries.

Accounting for overtime and private detail pay, 40 Quincy police offers earned more than $150,000 last year, compared with 24 officers in 2012. Twenty police officers in 2013 earned more than $50,000 in overtime and detail pay alone, compared with six officers the previous year.

Last year, 86 city firefighters earned more than $100,000 including overtime pay, compared with 59 firefighters earning that amount in 2012.

In base salaries, the number of firefighters earning more than $100,000 nearly doubled from 27 in 2012, while the number of police officers who earned six-figure base salaries was up 10 from 57 in 2012.

Christopher Walker, a spokesman for Mayor Thomas Koch, said the mayor “is pleased with the overall operation of both departments from the chiefs down to the patrolmen and firefighters.

Last month, the city council approved spending an additional $200,000 to supplement the fire department’s overtime budget after the department had exhausted the $1.2 million originally allocated for fiscal 2014, which ends June 30.

THE 2013 PAYROLL

City

Schools

Quincy College

Outside base salaries, the police officers earned an additional $4.9 million in 2013. Police Chief Paul Keenan said only about $1 million of that was overtime covered by tax dollars, and the rest was funded by private companies that paid officers for traffic and special event details.

Keenan said about $450,000 – roughly half of the publicly funded overtime – went to overtime costs for patrolmen, and the rest was used to pay overtime for superior officers, police courtroom appearances and female officers to guard female prisoners.

“(Overtime) is always a concern because we have to make adjustments throughout the year and we have to come under that OT figure (approved by the mayor and city council),” Keenan said.

Keenan said his department’s recent hiring of 15 new officers will help reduce patrolmen overtime costs.

Walker said the mayor doesn’t begrudge officers for taking off-shift details because it hasn’t affected their city work.

“I’m confident the police chief monitors the amount of hours the men and women work and has the ability to ensure that everyone is 100 percent all the time,” Walker said.

Quincy’s highest-paid employee in 2013 was school Superintendent Richard DeCristofaro, who earned $225,999. DeCristofaro is the top paid public employee on the South Shore.

Last year, 36 school department employees earned more than $100,000 – 10 more employees than in 2012. The schools, in 2013, paid $817,316 in overtime pay, mostly to custodians and bus drivers, compared with $713,221 in 2012.

At $128,274, Mayor Koch’s earnings made him the 32nd highest-paid city employee last year. He hasn’t had a pay raise since taking office in 2008.

In November, a special commission appointed by Koch recommended $340,972 in raises for 67 city employees, including a 30 percent bump for the mayor that would increase his salary to $160,000.

Easton Town Administrator David Colton, a former public works commissioner in Quincy and town administrator in Milton, led the salary commission and plans to present his group’s findings to the city council in the coming weeks. The council, however, says it will not hear Colton’s presentation until it receives documentation that justifies the proposed pay increases.